On the 16th June 1983 the House of Representatives enacted a Law under which the accounts of all quasi-government bodies are subject to audit by the Auditor General of the Republic of Cyprus.
Earlier, the majority of statutory bodies and mainly those which were established before independence of the Republic of Cyprus were audited by private auditors and it was not possible for the House of Representatives or even the Auditor General to exercise any control on the accounts of these bodies. On the contrary other bodies which were established under subsequent legislation were audited by the Auditor General and the House, through the report of the latter, had the possibility of scrutinizing his observations and exercise Parliamentary control. The new law places all quasi-government bodies, on the same level from a Parliamentary control point of view.
The subject of public accountability of quasi-government bodies was raised repeatedly by the Auditor General in his Annual Reports to the House of Representatives. In the annual discussion of the Auditor General's Report by the Public Accounts Committee, the Committee was taking a favorable stance on this matter. With the enactment of new law public accountability is satisfactorily enhanced.
The State Comptroller of Israel has, for the past 20 years, been actively involved in EDP audit. When a new department of EDP audit was created in the office in 1964, there were twenty computers in Israel. Today there are thousands. Accordingly, a new and vastly imporved system of audit had to be devised in order to cope with these changes in the public administration.
First, effort was undertaken to recruit experienced EDP auditors. Additionally, several young and promising university graduates in the office were encouraged to undertake the necessary training to become EDP auditors. Once the necessary manpower was available in the unit, it was decided to purchase an EDP system consisting of a minicomputer and eight terminals/work processors. Initially these are intended to improve the preparation of audit reports, but at the same time they will begin to collate data that will be used later for audit purposes. The process is being kept deliberately gradual, in order to accustom all the employees in the office to the new work methodology, without pressures which could be counter-productive.
Recently, the office of the Auditor General has adopted a significant decision regarding the internal and the statutory audit. It intends to remove duplication of works regarding the financial and the regularity audit conducted at present by the office of the Financial Comptroller General. In accordance with the Government Income and Expenditure Operation Regulations 1981, the district-wise treasuries and accounts control offices opened last year by the office of the Financial Comptroller General are responsible to conduct Internal audit of all government offices with the exception of some development boards framed under the Development Board Act, 1957.
The decision is made .with a view:
In conformity with this decision, some important guidelines are issued to its officials with a view to enabling them to follow the new concept of audit. Similar instructions are issued by the Financial Comptroller General to his internal audit staff.